Featured Author: Meet annapx

“The most important thing we learned is to make sure your task is finished 100%. If you are not doing this, there is a big chance you will have to spend a lot of extra time fixing things that were not done from the beginning.”

annapx

Meet husband and wife duo, annapx – a talented Power Elite author specializing in WordPress development in the Real Estate market. With a strong team focus on quality over quantity, the team are constantly pushing the boundaries to innovate their current themes with new features and designs.

It is here that they believe if you focus your strengths in everything you do, success will follow sooner or later – check out their story.

The company was founded by two partners – my husband and I. We started our solo venture together 6 years ago, and we’ve been working side by side ever since. We are WP Estate, a company with team members from Central and East Europe.

To what do you attribute your success – how is your business unique?

In our story, perseverance has always been our strength. We worked extremely hard to get our first theme approved on ThemeForest, but it paid off. After that, we continuously delivered 110% in everything we did, including theme updates, client support, or new themes. We always push the boundaries and try to do better and improve every day because we know it is always possible to do better.

We’ve also used our own experience and clients feedback to build customized and unique features for our themes. We were the first to create many features you can now find on other real estate themes on ThemeForest, and we continue to innovate on a regular basis.

“At one point we realized that if we wanted to be competitive, we have to narrow our focus. We could build themes for other domains, but we risked spending our energy in too many directions.”

At what moment did you decide to pursue your business?

Six years ago we were looking for a way to generate passive income doing software. At that point, we discovered ThemeForest and our attention was captured by Avada. They were just starting and already made an impressive number of sales. Of course, our first theme was hard rejected several times. It was a ‘general’ theme and despite our efforts, it did not make it on the market.

At one point, Envato held a contest for real estate themes. Since our strong point has always been high-level coding (and a real estate theme requires a LOT of coding), we decided to give it a try. After three soft rejections, we made it on the market with our first theme. We worked twice as much to add new features constantly. Using this experience with the first theme, we then developed the other products in our portfolio.

Why only real estate? At one point we realized that if we wanted to be competitive, we have to narrow our focus. We could build themes for other domains, but we risked spending our energy in too many directions. So, we decided to stay in the real estate market and we think this was an excellent choice for us.

What do you love about your work and why?

We think the flexible hours and the fact that we can work in any part of the world, are the biggest advantages of our work. We also love the moments when we get a five-star review from someone that uses our product and is extremely happy with it.

“It doesn’t matter if your name is Elon Musk or if you’re just a programmer that nobody knows about. It doesn’t matter if you are a billionaire or just starting up. If you have the courage and willingness to work hard, you are an inspiration.”

Is where you live a good place to be a creative professional?

Our team is not located in a single country. The main offices are in a small mountain town where we are close to the forest trails and nice views. So we try to spend a lot of time doing hiking or other outdoor exercises.

What is the most challenging thing about your work?

The competition is fierce and it is not always fair play. You constantly need to innovate, do new features or improve your designs. We also get a lot of feedback from our clients and we do our best to satisfy their ‘new feature’ requests. Sometimes this can become mission impossible.

Client support can be very challenging as some clients are not very technical or we have a language barrier. In the end, we always try to overcome these challenges and help them in the best possible way we can.

Who or what inspires you and why?

There are many people who inspire us.. but kudos to anyone who has the courage to start a new company and work hard to achieve their goals. It doesn’t matter if your name is Elon Musk or if you’re just a programmer that nobody knows about. It doesn’t matter if you are a billionaire or just starting up. If you have the courage and willingness to work hard, you are an inspiration.

“We strongly believe that quality comes first, not quantity.”

What are some of the lessons that have impacted your work?

The most important thing we learned is to make sure your task is finished 100%. If you release a new theme feature, make sure to test it thoroughly, if you change the UX then make sure it works on mobile, if you are helping a client, make sure you give them all the information and options from the beginning.

If you are not doing this, there is a big chance you will have to spend a lot of extra time fixing things that were not done from the beginning.

What is your most memorable client/customer story on Envato?

I still remember the feeling from when we got our first sale made on Envato. It was exhilaration, pride, and excitement for what’s to come – a unique mix of emotions I hadn’t felt when doing any other job before. That first client still uses our themes and is in touch with us on a regular basis.

What is your advice to authors on how to create a successful portfolio?

We strongly believe that quality comes first, not quantity. Our portfolio has only three themes and we choose to invest all our time and knowledge in improving them, constantly. As a result of this, our themes are some of the best selling in the category and we work very hard to keep them there.

Secondly, our advice is to be unique and use your strengths to your advantage. Focus on what you are good at in everything you do, and success must follow sooner or later.

What tools and resources do you use (online/offline)?

We use Freshdesk for client support, NetBeans as company IDE, GitHub, and Adobe suite. Offline, we have two big boards where we note our ideas and count the tickets number.

How do you balance work and family life?

It’s so easy to get lost in work but we have managed to organize our time, so that weekends are for us as a family. We enjoy spending time on outdoor activities where we can connect through fun sports or games.

What are your hobbies and interests outside of work?

Outdoor activities are no 1. It could be running, cycling, kayaking, diving or anything else, but it must be outside. In the evening, after a hard day, we enjoy playing on the game console or simply watching a good tv show.

What are your plans for the future?

We constantly try to improve our products.. so expect new and exciting updates!

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